But just being married doesn't mean you're happy. You can be in an unhappy marriage.

Q: There's also a correlation between religion and happiness. Are religious people happy or are happy people attracted to religion?

A: Causal traffic is two-way between happiness and marriage and could be with religion, too. Happy people tend to be more social in general.

Q: What do people wrongly associate with happiness?

A: Age. People think there are happy and unhappy times in life, like the midlife crisis years. There is more fluctuation and intensity among teens and younger people. But happiness and unhappiness is pretty much the same across age groups.

There aren't gender differences either, although they can express unhappiness differently. Women are more likely to be depressive, and men are more likely to be alcoholic.

Q: What do you find most surprising about happiness among people?

A: Biology. There are genetic influence on happiness. Some people are more biologically predisposed to happiness. But, like cholesterol, it can be tweaked through aerobic exercise, getting plenty of sleep and other things.

Q: Can happiness be a bad thing?

A: Happiness taken to the extreme is mania. Taken to the extreme, it can do harm. Manic people make foolish decisions.

Q: And unhappiness can be a good thing?

A: When bad things happen in our lives, unhappiness alerts us to do something about it.